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As you all know; I bloody love books. My favourite genre has to be Sci-Fi/Fantasy, and I thought I'd share with you some Sci-Fi/Fantasy books that you have to read before they hit the cinema! Prepare yourself, there are some corkers!

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

This awesome and intelligent sci-fi novel focuses on the journal entries of a Biologist sent with three other women, an Anthropologist, a Surveyor and a Psychologist, into the mysterious Area X. They are the twelfth expedition to enter Area X; all of the other expeditions have ended in utter chaos; mass murder, suicide, a hail of gunfire and a cancer endemic.

The film stars Natalie Portman as the Biologist, with Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, Oscar Issacs and Jennifer Jason Leigh in supporting roles, and BOI am I excited for this one! For you film buffs out there (myself included), Annihilation will is written and directed by Alex Garland, writer and director of Ex Machina, so just by that, I think we can work out how insanely awesome this film is going to be.

Also, I'm all about seeing ladies in science on screen! And having read the book, the review you can read here if you wish, I'm super excited to see this be turned into a film. The only thing I'm worried about is that it won't live up to the weirdness of the book. There was some part of the book that even I found hard to visualise, so it'll be interesting to see how they do it.

The film comes out on the 28th of February 2018, who's excited to see it?

A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle

This book was first published in 1962 and tells the story of Meg Murry, a young girl who, along with Mrs Who, Mrs Whatsit and Mrs Whitch, and a few other friends, try to rescue Meg's father who has been taken by forces of evil and is entrapped in another dimension.

ALL.OF.THE.SCIENCE! The fact that this book was written in 1962 makes me super excited about the film. I would love to read the book first and see how Disney and the wonderful Ava DuVernay have translated this awesome book from the 60's into a present-day tale.

The film which will be released on March 9th in 2018 is being directed by the fab Ava DuVernay and stars Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kailing, Reese Witherspoon, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Chris Pine and will be introducing Storm Reid as Meg Murry!

I am super excited for this film, not only for the premise, but the insane cast and crew involved!

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One centres around a teenage boy called Wade Watts and the quest to find a dead trillionaires hidden easter egg in the mass online world known as the OASIS. Whoever finds this easter egg will inherit the OASIS and all of the money that comes with it. But the dead inventor of the OASIS, James Halliday, hasn't made this an easy game...

The film, coming out March 30th 2018, is directed by the one and only Steven Speilberg and, if you haven't already seen the trailer, contains ALL the best pop culture references! It stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Mark Rylance and Simon Pegg.

I am currently reading Ready Player One and I am very much in love so far! I can't wait to watch the film in early 2018!

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

Now, hopefully, you guys will know what film this is... It's Blade Runner! I know Blade Runner came out in the cinema a long time ago (1982) but the saga also continues with Blade Runner 2049, and even though the latest film has already had its run at the cinema and will be probably coming out on DVD soon, I just couldn't leave this book out!

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is set in a post-apocalyptic San Fransisco where life has been devastated globally by nuclear war and many animals are facing extinction; having one is seen as a sign of great wealth. The book follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter, or 'Blade Runner' who tracks down and 'retires' six Nexus 6 androids.

The first film is directed by Rodley Scott and stars Harrison Ford, Sean Young, Daryl Hannah and Rutger Hauer.

The second film, Blade Runner: 2049, is directed by the amazing Denis Villeneuve and stars Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright, Jared Leto and once again, Harrison Ford, reprising his role as Rick Deckard. If you haven't seen Blade Runner: 2049, PLEASE DO! The visuals are astounding and I love every frame of this movie!

If you've seen the film/s you're sure to love the book!

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

I love Neil Gaiman, I've read quite a few of his works, most recently American Gods, the review you can read here. I have to say I haven't read any of Terry Pratchett's work, but have a few of his Discworld books and am very much looking forward to getting to them!

Good Omens tells the story of the demon Crowley and the angel Aziraphale preventing the coming of the antichrist and with it the final battle between heaven and hell; a comedy would you believe. Good Omens is being turned into a six-part miniseries by the BBC for Amazon Prime due to be released in 2019; so we've got quite a while to wait! It stars David Tennant as Crowley and Michael Sheen as Aziraphale, with Jack Whitehall and Miranda Richardson in supporting roles.

I haven't read the book yet but am accustomed to Gaiman's writing, so I am very looking forward to reading this, especially if it's a comedy, which is a genre I don't think I have ever read before!

So, there we have it! Five sci-fi/fantasy books to read before they hit the cinema! I hope you have enjoyed these recommendations! I know I'll be going to watch all of them when they come out.

I've also filmed an accompanying video to go alongside these recommendations over on my Youtube channel! You can visit my channel here :)

'Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another; the members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer. This is the twelfth expedition'

Oh, where to start?!

I really enjoyed this book. Having been thoroughly interested in science for a long time, I really enjoyed the point of view that the narrator takes within this book.

I am a massive fan of sci-fi literature and films; I basically grew up on The Matrix and the Lord Of The Rings tribology (extended edition, of course), and as I have gotten older, I have been really interested in different kinds of sci-fi. In my teens, it was all about dystopia, which has seemed to have died down a bit now. Although you could class this as a dystopia, I would class it more as 'weird science'? If that is even a thing?

The book leaves many questions unanswered, and as it is a trilogy, I'm looking forward to (hopefully) having these answered in the incoming books. The narrator is only referred to as the biologist, we do not know her name or any other the other scientists on the expedition with her into Area X. I read this book in just under 24 hours, so it's safe to say that I am hooked. I had to cover the bottoms of the page to stop myself from reading ahead with anticipation and excitement from what I might read next.

As said before, this book leaves many questions unanswered, and doesn't really explain what is happening most of the time. As this is written as a journal log of the narrator, the biologist, she even admits not telling the reader everything and holds back information from us; so we are clear to suggested that this is a very bias account of what happened to her and her experiences within Area X, and there are obviously still many secrets that Area X holds and the reader is yet to find out about. All I'm hoping for is that all of our questions will be answered in the subsequent books.

Another thing I really enjoyed reading, is that this book could also be classed as a horror. The 'monster/s' within this book changes as the biologist progresses, and, without being too spoiler heavy, the 'monster' is described in very scientific terms with clear and rational thinking by the narrator, which is similar to how I think, so I found that quite interesting to read.

Overall, I really, really, really enjoyed this book. It's intelligent, thought provoking and gripping; everything I love in a great book. It's also being made into a film which is being released late February 2018!

If you've read the book, let me know what you thought in the comments below!

"It all begins with the paranoid delusions of a half-insane hero called Rorschach. But is Rorschach really insane or has he in fact uncovered a plot to murder super-heroes and, even worse, millions of innocent civilians? On the run from the law, Rorschach reunites with his former teammates in a desperate attempt to save the world and their lives, but what they uncover will shock them to their very core and change the face of the planet! Following two generations of masked superheroes from the close of World War II to the icy shadow of the Cold War comes this groundbreaking comic story — the story of The Watchmen"

I made a point to read more graphic novels/comics this year as I have only ever read a few, and they're something I have wanted to read for a long time, but I have never found the right one. Now having read a few and looking for some new suggestions, my friends recommend Watchmen. Having read V for Vendetta, which is also written by Moore, I was intrigued by reading Watchmen as I knew it was quite popular and had been made into a film, although not well received, but is also being made into a TV series by HBO which now I've read Watchmen, I am really excited about!

Quickly, overall, I enjoyed the book! It has hard-hitting, controversial themes, of which I would expect nothing less from Moore. Rorschach was probably my favourite character; he spoke almost in notes of much like the diary he keeps, which is something that I thought was interesting. I also had to take in mind that this book was written in the 80's, well before I was born. So although I didn't think it was amazing, it probably would have been for folks reading it 30+ years ago.

As stated before, I haven't really read many graphic novels, so from reading traditional books, I've always found it difficult just reading the dialogue. I feel like I'm missing some hidden meaning from the artwork or character intentions as there's no 'they felt sad' or 'this made them angry' kind of text, but I'm sure I'll get used to it the more graphic novels and comics I read.

So overall, I guess I was expecting a bit more than what I read, especially with all of the hype surrounding the book. And like I said previously, this was probably an incredible graphic novel for its time, especially with the historical context of the 80's and the state the world was in back then. It was alright, but I'm looking forward to reading more graphic novels in the future!

I have always had a love/hate relationship with mornings. I love lying in bed, all snuggled and cosy, wrapped in blankets and I hate actually getting out of bed. I love waking up and seeing beautiful, dreamy sunrises and hate that I tell myself I'm not a morning person.

Slowly, mornings have been teaching me to be present in the day. For someone who absolutley hates getting out of bed, seeing beautiful sunrises like this almost give me a sense of purpose in the morning; a reason to get up for the day.

Blurry eyed and still not fully awake, I peek out of my blinds and see this dreamy sunrise. I quickly grab my camera and my 55 - 200mm lens, throw my dressing gown on and my wellies and head out into my garden to capture the glowing rising sun.

Theres something that has always drawn me to sunrises and sunsets. Perhaps it's because they symbolise a new begining; a fresh start to a new day. Everyone always likes the idea of starting over again, especially if they feel like they haven't really succeeded the day before. I know its something I constantly feel; the want to start over again. But staring at this sunrise this morning, it made me feel excited to begin a new day, and this is something I rarely feel.

It felt good.

The dusky pink hues have always drawn a sense of wonder and amazement from me. There is something about seeing the world in a early and new light that I have always found magical. Hearing birds cheep and the slight wind rustle the few leaves that Winter has spared gave me give me a feeling of calm and contentment. Time to start a new day.

Recently, I bought some new coloured gels for my flashguns, and I wanted to try them out. I've always loved photography and consider it more than a hobby than anything else. But I've recently been trying to 'up my game' and try out different things, such as my 'Witchy Happenings' series that I've posted on here.

This move to use colour in my photography mainly came from watching Blade Runner: 2049 and the beautiful use of colour in the film and in the posters, and also the promotional character posters from Stranger Things season 2. I personally love the contrasting colours of the pink/red and blue.

I'm thinking about doing more projects with off-camera flash and gels such as these, and would love to photograph other people than myself! I'd also love to try different colour combinations such as orange and blue. In film terms, this is often called an 'orange and teal push' and is seen quite a lot in recent films, most notably, Mad Max: Fury Road.

I really enjoyed taking these images and thought that they turned out really well, even if they were just test images! I can't wait to share more photography projects with you all! I have quite a few planned, so make sure you keep your eyes peeled :)

As any other person would, I do love a good playlist, but I'm always shuffling from one playlist to the other, as they never feel what I want them to make me feel. Until now that is...

I love cinematic music and OST's (Original Sound Tracks, basically, film scores) so I've picked some of my favourites and some that feel like a good morning; the kind that makes you feel good about the day ahead and even better, excited for it.

I'll add new songs as and when I find any worthy to be on the playlist, so keep your eyes peeled for any new additions to the mix!

The sun is gently rising above the horizon; the sky is candyfloss pink and the birds have come to sweetly sing you good-morning. It is a good morning. Relax and take your time with this beautifully selected range of cinematic sounds that make you feel rested yet ready. You've got this. Good morning...

Here's a little infographic of the playlist for you guys to share! It hasn't got all of the songs on, unfortunately, but it does give you a taste of whats on the playlist!

About Me

Hello! I'm Kayleigh, I'm a Youtuber, Blogger and Vlogger and I LOVE books, making films and anything to do with the outdoors! Stay here for beauty reviews, book reviews, personal film projects, ramblings and things I think are important and need to be shared! Have a nice day :)